Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

8-2020

Abstract

Using an unsupervised machine learning approach to analyze 12.8 million tweets posted by S&P 1500 firms from 2012 to 2016, we find that firms tweet more financial information around significantly negative or positive earnings announcements or accounting filings. Specifically, we observe a symmetric U-shaped relation between the number of financial tweets and the materiality of accounting information events. This relation is consistent with the theoretical prediction in Hummel et al. (2018) which assumes that managers are sensitive to their firm’s fundamental value. We document that this relation also holds for hyperlink usage in tweets about financial information around important events, and that the relation is more pronounced for non-loss firms. Furthermore, our intraday analyses indicate that firms release financial information on Twitter primarily after (before) earnings announcements (10-K or 10-Q filings), suggesting that Twitter plays different roles for firms around separate accounting information events.

Keywords

Social Media, Discretionary Dissemination, Disclosures, Twitter, Feedback

Discipline

Accounting | Corporate Finance | Social Media

Research Areas

Corporate Reporting and Disclosure

First Page

1

Last Page

60

Identifier

10.2139/ssrn.3105847

Publisher

Singapore Management University School of Accountancy Research Paper No. 2022-148

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Comments

Published in Contemporary Accounting Research (2024). DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12986

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3105847

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